By Jessie Scanlon
Just when you thought the SimTrend was over, the Computer Museum in Boston is opening the US$1 million Virtual FishTank. The 3-D simulated world stretches across 12 projection screens and measures 400 square feet. Codeveloped with the MIT Media Lab and its spin-off Nearlife, the exhibit incorporates principles of artificial life and emergent behavior. Visitors can design a fish and watch it interact with fellow swimmers and react to its environment in real time.
"The tank shows how complex patterns arise from simple, local interactions," says MIT professor Mitchel Resnick. Schools of fish, like ant colonies and market economies, are "organized without an organizer." More information on the project, as well as its travel schedule, is available at www.tcm.org/.
ELECTRIC WORD
SimTank
